Wednesday 31 October 2012

Solemnity of All Saints - Pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory from November 1 to the 8th.


November: Month of the Holy Souls

Pope's Intention
NOVEMBER
  • Ministers of the Gospel. That bishops, priests, and all ministers of the Gospel may bear the courageous witness of fidelity to the crucified and risen Lord.
  • Pilgrim Church. That the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.

Ordinary Time: November 1st

Solemnity of All Saints 

It so happens that the Saints featured on the Gregory Palamas' Night Office  Readings 


TUESDAY 30 October 2012 Year II
First Reading Wisdom 3:1-19
                                                                 Responsory           Wis 3:6.7.9
The Lord tested his chosen ones like gold tested by fire; he has received them as a sacrificial offering; at the time of his visitation men shall see, + for grace and mercy shall be given to his chosen ones.
V. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall live with him in love. + For grace and ...

Second Reading
From a homily by Gregory Palamas (Hom. 25: PG 151,322-323)

To all his people God will give power and strength
God is truly wonderful in his saints. And so when the psalmist prophesies: God is wonderful in his saints, he adds: he will give power and strength to his people. Think over in your minds the meaning of the prophetic words: to all his people God will give power and strength, for God is no respecter of persons, but it is only in his saints that he is seen in wonder.
From heaven God showers upon all his abundant help; he is a fount of salvation and light which flows eternally with mercy and goodness. But not everyone can profit by his grace and power in the exercise and perfection of virtue or even in the display of miracles; it is only those who have made the good choice and whose actions show their faith and love of God. They have finally turned aside from their evil ways, and clinging securely to God's commandments they keep their mental vision fixed on Christ the sun of righteousness. Not only does Christ stretch out from heaven an unseen hand of help to those engaged in the struggle, but still today we can hear his voice exhorting us in the words of the gospel:
Those who acknowledge me before the world I shall acknowledge before my Father in heaven. And so you see how we cannot openly profess our faith in Christ without his powerful help. Nor will our Lord Jesus Christ speak out for us in the world to come, and unite and reconcile us with his heavenly Father, unless we ourselves give him the chance to do so.
For all the saints, as servants of God, have openly professed their faith during this life on earth and in the presence of their fellow mortals, and what is more for just a short moment in this age of time and before only a small number of people. But our Lord Jesus Christ, as God and Lord of heaven and earth, will speak out for us in the eternal life of the world to come in the presence of God the Father, surrounded by angels and archangels and all the heavenly powers, and with the whole human race present from Adam to the end of the world. For all will rise and stand at the judgment-seat of Christ. And at that time, in the presence and sight of all, he will praise and glorify and give the crown of victory to those who have shown their faith in him to the end.
Responsory                                      In 8:12; Rom 13:12
I am the light of the world. + Anyone who follows me will not walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life.

V. Let us cast off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. +Anyone who ... 

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